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At the age of 16, I learnt what it was like to live without my parents in close proximity, and what I considered then to be a hindrance to my emotional understanding of the world, can now take partial responsibility for who I am today. Although the experience gave me the freedom to lay some new stones for my path, my decisions on where to place these stones were heavily affected by the two humans who had led to my existence. Thankfully, my parents were bitten by the travel bug from a reasonably young age, leading them to explore and feed their curiosity for alternative cultures. This restlessness initially lead them from England and Wales to Germany, Luxembourg and the Netherlands, settling eventually in the South of France, with short intervals to Belgium. Myself, being born in Wales, jumped from various locations across England, France and the Netherlands. This independent exploration has essentially fine-tuned my understanding and appreciation for the multicultural essence that rightfully exists in our world. I was always brought up to embrace difference, explore change and celebrate the odd and weirdly wonderful. As a result of this, it feels extremely unnatural to feel a sense of ‘belonging’ when inhabiting a specific place. I have rarely experienced a sense of entitlement, leading me to protect what I understand to be ‘rightfully mine’ – because of this, I suppose that the feeling of threat of this perceived ‘other’ is also absent.

Witnessing the hasty exit of England from the EU, has got to be one of the most surreal moments of my adult life – especially as I write this as an expat, immigrant, foreigner other, outsider – whatever the Daily Mail is choosing to label me as that day. Whilst I can painstakingly empathise and dryly swallow a fraction of the justifications of some individuals who chose to vote to leave the EU, I can’t help but feel heavily disappointed and disenchanted with my country and the regrettable decision. Due to three years of studying the British press, I am able to reasonably understand how dominating and exploitative the media has been in this viscous public propaganda scheme. However, this does not come close to repairing the hurt that sits heavy in my heart. To put it frankly, I can only interpret the ‘Brexit’ as a transparent representation of our volunteering to destroy a nation’s tolerance and understanding. A nation whose foundation is built upon multiculturalism itself. Considering the number of individuals who voted to leave the EU related their vote off of the back of the refugee crisis, I feel that our global family is becoming more exposed to a dangerous, yet stern message that we do not intend to help those in dire need. However, the contention that concerns me the most, are the attitudes being provided with a platform through various social networks, spewing an endless tirade of hate speech – hate speech which is most often based on pure fear and prejudice.

I have witnessed just how beautifully open the human soul can be, when I visited the Calais refugee camp and experienced first-hand how overwhelming the support was. However, this support is a slow blossoming flower that requires a lot of attention from those that selflessly give to it on a consistent basis. Unfortunately, this blossom is being damaged by a selection of perpetrators who spread their poison hard and fast by irresponsibly sharing their destructive judgements. Thus, I choose to use the same platform to encourage you all to use your voice in the compassionate manner in which it was intended and is now desperately required. I am discouraged of how we as a society are continuously treating individuals as ‘the other’. I am disgusted with our severe lack of empathy. It is a shameful ability that we have in being able to turn our backs at lightning speed on these human beings. Whilst these displaced individuals are not provided with the opportunity to have a voice (something that we hugely take for granted at times), I believe that it is our responsibility as fellow human beings to stand in support for them. We need to use our collective intelligence to look past the misbehaving minority who are providing a bad name for misplaced individuals and search for those who truly need our support.

These detached representations of suffering that we see plastered on the front of the morning newspaper of humans covered in dirt from an explosion or painfully crying, yearning for a place to call home, these humans that we gawp at whilst sipping from a cardboard coffee cup, are real, they are existing and often they feeling nothing but uncertainty and unease – their stones being constantly displaced by the inaction of men today. Personally, I find it very difficult to switch off from this and I am starting to think that there is a reason for this.

It all begins with an attitude and eventually this attitude will develop into opinion. It is never too late to share the lesson and encourage others to learn acceptance and tolerance before poisonous opinion is unleashed, becoming untamable.

Never one to fall from grace, the Erdem SS’15 collection demonstrated a bewildering midnight garden sentiment. The delicate collection, which was the perfect combination of femininity with an edge, provided the fashion world with sensually structured yet rhythmic creations, leaving us in a personal dreamland.

Erdem proved that SS’15 doesn’t have to be over-run with pastel colour arrangements. Alternatively, the elegant brand laid a dramatic scene with luxurious emerald greens paired with mysterious midnight blues, occasionally introducing a monochrome palette. Using Victorian influences, the brand pooled deep and sultry evening tones with gentle yet dramatic chiffon creations. A Colonial tropical vibe shone through with exotic, deep jungle prints and foliage inspired frocks that did not fail to impress. Tight bodices and high necks were evident, playing with Erdem’s traditionally sheer and delicate collections. However, the brand still maintained their original persona through dramatic chiffon pieces. Footwear provided an artistic clash of casual cool with prim and proper. Gladiator sandals partnered up with playful, textured pieces, whilst androgynous Victorian style brogues contrasted with structured feminine ensembles. The Erdem SS’15 collection left a seductive taste in the palette as sheer panels and deep V cuts, exposed areas of bare skin. Nonetheless, elegance was plain to see thanks to Erdem’s timeless finishing utilising lace lining and veiling.

Typically when I grocery plan for the week, my list for dinners will include some of my regular and favorite recipes as well as some new-to-me recipes that I want to try out. I strive to make sure that each week I try new recipes so that I don’t get bored of eating the same things over and over again, then start craving a big, juicy cheeseburger (let’s be honest, I’m ALWAYS craving a big, juicy cheeseburger no matter what I do). Every so often, I’ll find myself in a rut where I eat the same dishes over and over again until I can’t even look at them again. In college, I had a 4 month period where all I ate for dinner was General Tso’s Chicken. Yup, from the local Chinese restaurant. Clearly, being healthy was NOT a priority back then. Oh, and don’t even get me started on…

Today I was running late (as per), so I ran like a headless chicken throughout London – of course this meant walking on the left side of the escalator and not staring into space on the right side, terrible I know. Plus, the tube has been temporarily closed in the morning due to overcrowding for the past 3 days, so this didn’t help my timekeeping skills at all. Upon arrival I nervously awaited the new editor who seemed a little more stern. A couple of hours later, she popped in the office and we swiftly began working.

My jobs for the day involved sourcing more images for a new ‘editor’s choice’ feature theme. Later on, I began processing the returns for the PR companies. This involved individually logging every item that was due to be returned (to avoid chaos if a company deems an item to be lost), packaging them up and signing them off to be collected. I found this quite nerve-wracking because ounces of doubt do begin to creep into your head – ‘is this the correct address’, ‘what if I’ve written the details down incorrectly’ and so on, but in the end you just have to use your common sense (because it got you this far) and get on with it.

Today was much more eventful. Plus, as the phone was working, I was able to communicate with other people more freely, giving me a true sense of the running’s of the office – even if I am stuck in a cupboard.

Another aspect that I didn’t consider was the amount of time that you spend alone. For most people, this would be quite boring but for someone like myself, I’m provided with a peaceful environment where I don’t have to feel too nervous.

So, after coming across this on Nia Phillips blog, I had to give it a go.

100 DAYS OF HAPPY

“At the moment, I’m trying to actively improve my life for the better. Through a stronger, more positive mental attitude and by simply highlighting more pros than cons in my life, allowing the good to simply outweigh the bad.” – www.niaphillips.wordpress.com

THE CHALLENGE: upload 1 picture a day (for 100 days), to whatever social media platform you prefer. I am using my WordPress blog and will give an update once a week of what has made me happy over each of the last seven days.

The image can be simple, as long as it has made you happy for a moment.

This is an interesting experiment and is something I reaaaaaally hope I can manage to keep up! I am all about encouraging happiness and a healthy attitude to life.

Pharrell Williams knows a thing or two about making a music video that gets people buzzing.

The official video for his Despicable Me 2 soundtrack offering, “Happy”, is a 24-hour-long interactive music experience set to his smile-making, toe-tapping track. The video contains 240hours of dance, complete with special guests Odd Future, Magic Johnson, Steve Carrell, Jamie Foxx, Kelly Osbourne, Jimmy Kimmel and more, but one thing it doesn’t have is the young men of the Visible Men Academy (VMA) busting a move.

Luckily, that has been rectified in a new video from VMA, a free K-8 public charter school for boys in Bradenton, Florida, which is filled to capacity with little boys breaking out, dancing and definitely getting happy..